“Conference believes that Tommy Robinson stands on the long English tradition of anti-establishment rebels with a cause from Robin Hood to the Suffragettes”

Ukip motion

The motion to be debated reads: "Conference believes that Tommy Robinson stands on the long English tradition of anti-establishment rebels with a cause from Robin Hood to the Suffragettes and Nigel Farage; admires his campaigns both for #FreeSpeech and to expose the authorities’ decades-long silence and inaction over industrial-scale child sexual abuse by rape gangs; and requests the NEC to offer him membership of UKIP.”

Alan Craig, UKIP's Family and Children spokesman, said: “Tommy has become a global phenomenon representing those who have been excluded and silenced by the globalist liberal elite.

“He courageously turned his back on all racism and the EDL and now campaigns for free speech and on those issues like rape gangs that the authorities want to ignore.

“He's now a Kipper at heart and we should welcome him.”

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PLANS: UKIP is set to debate a motion offering membership to Tommy Robinson

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CONTROVERSY: Robinson could be allowed into the party before the end of the year

However the proposal has angered senior UKIP members, who are determined to block his entry.

A UKIP NEC member Ben Walker said he might leave the party if Robinson is allowed in.

He said: “I am categorically against it. We have got a set of rules that differentiate us from the other parties – we don't let people in if they have been in what we consider extreme groups.